


jimmy, jimmy: scenes from neutron's deathbed

by theodcyning



Category: The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius
Genre: Death, Fate, Mortality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-27
Updated: 2018-11-27
Packaged: 2019-09-01 10:42:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16763554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theodcyning/pseuds/theodcyning





	jimmy, jimmy: scenes from neutron's deathbed

Jimmy opened damp eyes and stared blearily from his bed. From nothing, shapes began to form. Old friends: Cindy and Libby, Bolbi. He noticed a sweet autumnal smell wafting from the window: leaves and water fermenting. His friends had grown old. Cindy and Libby sat on wooden chairs, backs straight, positions and movements harmonized. They had even begun to look like each other. Libby was distracted picking at something on her fingernail, but Cindy had noticed Jimmy was awake. She observed him, waiting for him to make a sound. Jimmy decided to stay silent a while longer.  
  
Bolbi’s remaining hair was slicked back in two greasy streams. Large rings bearing semi-precious stones constricted his corpulent fingers. His eyes shone dully, his now yellowed teeth stuck out as they always had. Even now he smiled. It was good of him to come all this way, Jimmy thought to himself. But there was an absence.  
  
Jimmy cleared his throat and spat the yellowed sputum. All eyes clicked onto him. He began to speak:  
  
“Where is Carl?” he croaked, smoothing out the flacid curl of his hair with his bony fingers.  
  
“Goddard went to go get him from the farm,” Cindy responded, “he should be here any second.”  
  
“I see.”

All were silent. The sunfire of late autumn light was caught for an instant by the smoothe of the window, and the room was enveloped in a warm light. The room was sparse, completely empty except for the bed, some chairs, thrift store art, and a picture Hugh and Judy Neutron, both beaming broadly, a painted wooden duck beside the frame. Suddenly, a rush of wind. All eyes shifted.

Through the window Goddard could be seen descending, long propeller blades whirring above him. On his back, a large old man, grey red hair the color of dying coral. Jimmy’s face broke into a barely perceptible smile. The noise ceased and after a moment Carl entered the room, Goddard in tow.  
  
“Uh, hey Jimmy.”  
  
“Carl! Old friend it’s good to see you. Everyone, I need to talk to Carl for a moment. Would you mind giving us some privacy?”

All but Jimmy, Carl, and Goddard shuffled out of the room. Jimmy’s smile burst forth.

“How are you?” he asked, “it’s so good to see you, it’s been years.”  
  
“Uh, I’m good, Jimmy. The farm’s good, all the llamas are healthy.” He pulled out a croissant from his jacket pocket and began to munch.  
  
“That’s great Carl. It’s good that after everything that happened you finally got what you wanted.”

The room grew silent. After a few seconds, Carl spoke.

“Jimmy, you don’t still blame yourself, do you? I mean, after all, if you hadn’t been there a lot more people would have died.”

Again silence. Jimmy’s smile dropped.

“And if it wasn’t for me would the Twonkies have even come back in the first place?”  
  
“Jimmy, you saved the world more times than I can count. Your inventions were brilliant, they really were. I can’t believe you quit. From what they tell me you don’t make anything any more, all you have left is Goddard.”

A twinkle in Jimmy’s eye.

“Carl, what if I told you that I never actually quit inventing? Goddard, activate protocol Gilgamesh-Alpha!”

“Bark, bark!”

The room began to whirr. The drab, faded wallpaper was replaced by steel plates and twisting, criss crossed wires. Meters spun and oscillated, exhaust vents whistled. Great vats of translucent green slime slid into view. Carl’s face blanched bone white. 

In the center of the room, a cylindrical, chrome plated pedestal rose from the floor. Atop it, a helmet. Its shape was an almost perfect hemisphere, the bottom filled in and padded with red velvet. It was studded with lights like shining gems, inscribed with copper filled wedges. Dials sat in a neat row, all set to zero, awaiting their guiding hand.

“J-j-jimmy what is all of this?” Carl had finished his first croissant and was now eating his second, terrified.

An old light flooded Jimmy’s eyes, one that Carl had not seen for decades. But there was something different. Maybe it was that it shown from an old man incapacitated in bed, but the light felt inappropriate, profane, perhaps unholy. 

“Goddard, place the Vivodome on my head.”

Goddard headed his master, gently placing the implement on his head. To support himself, he rested the heavy headpiece on the bedframe.

“Sheen was a wild man. He was totally vital, really he never stopped.” Jimmy’s still shining eyes brimmed with tears. “When we lost him, I had my final brainblast. If death could extinguish a flame like that, it does not deserve its dominion over man. Since then I have worked in secret, designing a device that will free us from the shackles of mortality!”

Croissant crumbs dropped from Carl’s gaping mouth. “J-jimmy, I, uh, I don’t think you can…”

“Carl, help me turn it on. For old time’s sake?”

But Carl did not stir.

“Fine, if you are paralyzed by your fear of death, so be it. I will conquer the enemy the only way I know how. Once I activate the Vivodome, it will only take seven seconds for my mortality to be cured. My only regret is that he never had the chance to use it. Goddard, activate the Vivodome!”

Goddard stretched out his neck and twisted the knobs with his metallic beak. Jimmy’s pupils dilated. He began to scream. Pain unlike any he had ever felt before flowed through every vein, every capillary of his weakened body. His eyes shot around in terror, like a wild beast caught in a fatal snare. His gaping mouth began to scream, then the screaming stopped, replaced by a forced, choked exhale of breath. And after five seconds Jimmy Neutron collapsed. The Vivodome fell from his head and shattered on the floor. Cindy, Libby, and Bolbi burst in to see Jimmy slumped over, and Carl’s wide eyes filled with terror.

A stream of drool began to form on Jimmy’s bottom lip, his breathing was shallow. The room reverted slowly, steel replaced with faded wallpaper.

Carl was paralyzed, his eyes still screaming, his mouth still agape. In his shock all he could sense was a sweet autumnal smell wafting from the window: leaves and water fermenting.


End file.
